This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
Many vehicles include active grill shutters to control the amount of airflow through the front grill, and thus improve the vehicle's drag coefficient during higher speed driving with low cooling demand. With respect to electric vehicles, some manufacturers have begun to locate a storage area in front of where the engine compartment used to be. As a result, the height of the cooling module must be reduced. One way to accomplish this is to arrange the heat exchanger at a severe back angle and use a duct to direct the airflow from the grill to the heat exchanger. However, such a packaging configuration results in reduced airflow quantity and distribution. This is because the duct must have a sharp turn where it attaches to the heat exchanger. The sharp turn undesirably causes uneven airflow distribution across the heat exchanger. The present disclosure includes an active grill shutter assembly that advantageously provides even airflow across the heat exchanger, and provides numerous additional advantages and unexpected results as explained herein and as one skilled in the art will recognize.